Ninety One SA PTY Ltd Grows Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd grew its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 32.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,312 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,770 shares during the period. Mastercard makes up about 1.6% of Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $10,972,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MA. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in Mastercard by 2.9% during the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,211,514 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $689,121,000 after buying an additional 34,053 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 11,688 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $6,648,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 16,281 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $9,261,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 1,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $653,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seascape Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 2,088 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,188,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on MA. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $713.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Mastercard from $669.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $657.48.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.1%

NYSE:MA opened at $570.96 on Thursday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $465.59 and a 52 week high of $601.77. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $555.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $565.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $512.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.31 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 202.03% and a net margin of 45.28%.The company’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.89 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 19.44%.

Mastercard Profile

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. The company facilitates electronic payments and transaction processing for credit, debit and prepaid card products carrying the Mastercard brand, while also providing a range of payment-related services to issuers, acquirers and merchants. Its technology and network enable authorization, clearing and settlement of payments and support a broad set of use cases including point-of-sale, e-commerce and mobile payments.

Beyond core transaction processing, Mastercard offers a suite of value-added services such as fraud and risk management, identity and authentication tools, tokenization and digital wallet support, cross-border and commercial payment solutions, and data analytics and consulting services for merchants and financial partners.